Armored Jinchuriki
by Maltrazz
Summary: Naruto finds inspiration as a child, in the form of an ancient tomb. He becomes something vastly different than a traditional Ninja. Beware the Shinobi sheathed in Iron!
1. Prologue: Densetsu no Bouheki

**Armored Jinchuriki**

_a kidrazz production_

**AN:** Maltrazz:Hello everyone. This is my first joint story, and I am happy to do it with my good friend kiddi. We have been trading ideas for a while, and decided to try doing a story together. I hope you like it. And now, heeeere's kiddi!

kiddi: Thank you Maltrazz for the introduction. Maltrazz is one of the few people on FFN that I keep in contact with, and a fun person to swap ideas with. I have always had many story plots bouncing around my skull but few people to share them with, I am not willing to publish just the ideas and wait for reviews either.

Now this is our first collaboration fic, and we hope to appease the masses. Though, if you don't like it, please, no flames. As always constructive criticism is appreciated, as well as pointing out and errors we may have missed.

Prologue: Densetsu no Bouheki _or_ The Legendary Bulwark

A young boy was wandering through the forests outside of Konoha. His name was Naruto Uzumaki, and, although he did not know it yet, he was the Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune.

One might wonder what a child of only seven was doing outside of his village. The truth was, he was not supposed to leave the village, but he had discovered a secret tunnel, in a deserted building. He had followed it, and ended up outside the wall.

Not only was it more peaceful here, but he also did not have to put up with the stares and the whispers. He hated the whispers. Out here, there was just the pleasant sounds of nature.

After walking for a while, he came upon a large pile of rocks, and decided to check it out. As he got closer, he realized that there was an opening that he could squeeze through.

When he had managed it, he found that there was a passage going further in. A few moments of walking later, he jumped in surprise when a dim light suddenly appeared overhead. He looked up, only to see a lot of strange symbols on the roof, in a circular pattern. And they were glowing. He wondered what it was, but since it was doing no harm, he decided to go further in. As he walked, more of the strange symbols lit up.

After continuing on for a while, the tunnel opened up into a cave. The first thing Naruto noticed were the two suits of armor displayed on the back wall. One was made up of chainmail and leather, The other was made up of blackened iron plate mail, and had several spikes and a strange symbol on the breastplate.

The next thing he noticed was something he did not recognize at the time. He would later look back, and realize that it was a sarcophagus.

Naruto's eyes locked onto the ornate, stone slab. Taking in all the details. There were images engraved, showing a man in armor, guarding what looked like a priest. In the center of the slab was old script, but the Sandaime had taught him to read old script. Secretly, Naruto believed this was because it was the writing system in place when his jiji was a kid.

"Legend of the... Bu-bulwark of the Sage of Six Paths." Naruto read out loud, stumbling over the word. "He bound his body in iron, to serve as his shield. He dis-discarded all armor, to act as his sword." Naruto paused his reading, as he turned to look at the suits of armor in the room.

"How? How could anyone move in that?" The blond boy wondered, as he looked upon the plate mail. The metal on it was thick, it would have to be extremely heavy. How would one use it in battle, let alone to "wear" and "discard" it and still be of use?

Naruto turned back to the slab, and continued reading, "The Bulwark was, re-rev-ered, Revered! The Bulwark was revered for his i-imme-nse strength." Naruto licked his lips as he went on to the next part, going slowly so as not to mess up his words. "He was once a sam-murai with a strong since of morals. When the lord he had sworn feal-ty to died, the lord's son took control. However, the new lord was a cruel man, ex-executing anyone who was even suspected of dis-re-spec-ting, disrespecting him.

"One day, when a peasant did not get out of the new lord's path quickly enough, he ordered the samurai to kill him. He refused, saying it was dis-honorable to kill an unarmed man over an accident. The lord was enraged, and later hired a ninja to kill the man and his family. He also had the samurai's wa-ki-zashi planted at the scene.

"The samurai tried to pro-claim his in-o-senc-s, innocence, but the trial was pre-side-ed over by the lord, and was nothing but a farce." Naruto frowned, this lord sounded like some of the villagers. "He would have been executed the next day, had a stranger not come to his rescue. The ripple eyed man would later become known as The Sage of the Six Paths." Naruto's eyes widened at this. He was the most legendary ninja in history! "He threw the ninja res-sponsible for the murders to the ground, and told the as-sem-bled people what really happened." (AN: Yes, you are supposed to be pretending a kid is reading this, deal with the hyphens.)

"The samurai felt in-debt-ed, indebted to this man, both for saving his life, and for restoring his honor. He pledged his life to the Sage, and said that he would become the man's shield or sword, as he needed. He would become the Sage's 'Bo-he-ki, Bouheki', or bul-wark.

"Bouheki, as he now called himself, had always been proud of the fact that he forged all of his own equipment. He put those skills to use now, to forge a suit of armor like none that had been seen before." Naruto's eyes were once again drawn to the armor. It was unique, especially the spikes. Reaching over it touched his finger to one of them. Yelping, he pulled back, tearing the skin on his finger and scattering a few droplets of blood. Glaring at the spiky protrusion, the blonde decided not to touch the armor anymore. He turned back to the sarcophagus, and continued to read.

"The Sage used his skills in the new art of Fu-in-jutsu to add seals to the armor. They kept the armor from rusting, or other-wise being e-fec-ted by age. He also created seals both on the armor, and on Bouheki, so that his re-tainer might store the armor more easily. Over time, the Sage trained Bouheki to call upon enough chakra to use the 'storage seals' on his own.

"They traveled for a time, teaching anyone the Sage felt was worthy, how to call upon their chakra. Then Ca-la-meh-tee, calamity struck. A demon walked the earth, spreading des-truc-tion and chaos in its wake. It was called the Juubi, because of the ten tails that it had. It had one eye that was rippled and covered in tomoe." Naruto's eyes widened in shock. The demon's eye sounded like that creepy clan with the fan on their backs.

"Because of the sim-il-ar-ity, similarity to the Sage's own eyes, people started to blame him and this new 'chakra' for angering the demon." Naruto paused, he had to reread that line, "People are stupid." He finally stated, before he continued reading. "The Sage was not sure if this was true or not, but all the same, he felt that he had to try and stop the Beast.

"Little is known about the battle, besides the outcome. What is known, is that Bouheki recieved a mortal injury, by protecting the Sage with his own body. The Sage succeeded in sealing the Juubi, but lost a good friend in the process.

"Bouheki's final request was that his armor be repaired, and buried with him in a secret tomb. This was so that whomever found his tomb might become the next Bouheki."

"Here lies The Bulwark of The Sage of the Six Paths. To whomever finds this tomb: please take this armor and honor the memory of the first Bouheki. Preserve your honor, and protect those that you care for. If you would do this, then simply put some of your blood to the seal beneath this in-scrip-tion. This will seal the armor for you to take with you, and bind it to you.

- The Sage of the Six Paths"

Excited energy is what Naruto's body was made of in that moment. He couldn't wait to tell his jiji what he found. To think all it would take is a little blood to… That is when Naruto noticed a few drops of blood from his finger had landed on the now glowing seal.

"Oops." Naruto said, maybe if he wiped it off... but when his finger came in contact with the seal, it fully activated. A pain that made Naruto think of hot iron, shot through his body. He blacked out, though his hand was still touching the seal, wisp like black lines began to engrave themselves onto the back of his left hand.

**AN:** There you go! Hope you enjoyed it, and please take time to review.


	2. Chapter 1: Kaji

**Armored Jinchuriki**

_a kidrazz production_

**AN:** Maltrazz: Here we go, Chapter 1! I would like to thank all of the people who gave me or this story alerts and faves, not to mention all the wonderful reviews. I would like to remind you, however, that I did not work on this alone. If you gave me an Author Alert, or made me a Favorite Author, then please do the same for kiddi! Check out his solo work, as well. It is quite good.

kiddi declined to comment at this time. ^_^

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><p><em><span>Last Time:<span>_

"Bouheki's final request was that his armor be repaired, and buried with him in a secret tomb. This was so that whomever found his tomb might become the next Bouheki."

"Here lies The Bulwark of The Sage of the Six Paths. To whomever finds this tomb: please take this armor and honor the memory of the first Bouheki. Preserve your honor, and protect those that you care for. If you would do this, then simply put some of your blood to the seal beneath this in-scrip-tion. This will seal the armor for you to take with you, and bind it to you.

- The Sage of the Six Paths"

Excited energy is what Naruto's body was made of in that moment. He couldn't wait to tell his jiji what he found. To think all it would take is a little blood to… That is when Naruto noticed a few drops of blood from his finger had landed on the now glowing seal.

"Oops." Naruto said, maybe if he wiped it off... but when his finger came in contact with the seal, it fully activated. A pain that made Naruto think of hot iron, shot through his body. He blacked out, though his hand was still touching the seal, wisp like black lines began to engrave themselves onto the back of his left hand.

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><p><span>Chapter 1: Kaji<span> _or_ Helm

Naruto slowly came to. He felt the blanket on top of him, and the soft surface he was lying on. obviously he was lying in a bed. Now all that was left to do was to open his eyes, and find out where he actually was.

He opened his eyes to a white ceiling. He sat up, looked around, and took a deep breath. The smell, antiseptics, and white walls clued him into the fact that he was in a hospital room. He had only been to the hospital a couple of times from training accidents, and he had never had to spend the night before.

As he was looking around, a nurse walked in, and saw that he was awake. "Ah, Uzumaki-san, I see you are up. I will go let Hokage-sama know right away." With that, she left the room.

Naruto just stared at the door for a moment. As he continued to look around, he saw the eastern gate and the sun through the window.

A few minutes later, the Sandaime walked through the door, a concerned, and slightly worried, expression on his face.

"Good morning, Naruto-kun." He said with a smile, "You gave me quite a scare yesterday."

Naruto rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Heh, sorry Jiji. Uhh, how did I get here?"

"Well, I brought you here Naruto-kun." Chuckled the old Kage, "Now, why don't you tell me how you came across that interesting room I found you in."

Naruto had a sheepish look he scratched the back of his neck and gave a nervous laugh. "I was in an old building and found a tunnel. I went inside to look around, and it led outside of town, but I found another tunnel as well. It led to the room, and there were all the glowing symbols." Naruto babbled become a bit more excited as he told his grandfather the story. "Oh, I touched one of them and… I don't remember what happen, just that it hurt."

The Hokage nodded at his charges words, having a seal inscribed into ones skin was not the most pleasant of things. "Tell me Naruto, did you read the story inside that room?" He received an excited nod from the boy. "Then you should understand that you are now the owner of that very suit of armor you found." Hiruzen told the boy, lifting up his left hand to show him the lines of Kanji now engraved into his skin.

Naruto's eyes widened comically, and the Hokage, had to suppress his urge to laugh. "B-but I can't use that armor, its Huge! It would crush me." The boy whined.

The Hokage did laugh at this, "That's okay Naruto, you'll grow into it. But I suppose you will need special training to use it. After all, it would be a shame if it never got used again." He told him. "That is, unless you don't believe you could a great warrior, what happened to that boy who said he was going to take my hat?" He goaded.

"Hey, I AM gonna take that hat from you, dattebayo!" Naruto said, pumping his fist into the air. "But, who would train me?" Naruto's face gained a confused expression.

The Hokage chuckled. "Since it would be purely physical training, I think I have the perfect person set up. In fact, I arranged for us to meet him as soon as you woke up." Naruto grew excited and jumped out of bed.

After quickly throwing on his orange jumpsuit, he grabbed Sarutobi's hand, and started pulling him out of the room. As they left the room, The Hokage whispered to himself, "I just hope that Naruto doesn't start wearing green spandex."

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><p>As they walked, another question occurred to Naruto. He looked at the seal on his hand, and asked, "Ne, Jiji, how could such a huge suit of armor fit in such a little seal?"<p>

The Hokage smiled, he loved answering people's questions. It was one of the reasons he took so much pride in his title, "The Professor". "Seals are amazing things, Naruto. With the right matrix, or set of symbols, anything is possible. However, in order to do some things, the seal would be too big, and it would not be worth the time and effort to make it." He gestured to the seal the boy was looking at. "A normal storage seal would not be able to hold all of that armor. However, these seals that were inscribed on you were specifically designed to hold it."

"Oh, I get it. It's like how a tanto and a katana use different sheaths." Then something clicked in the boys mind. "Wait, seals, as in more than one?"

"Yes. That seal only holds the gloves for that hand. Look at your other hand." Naruto did, and saw what looked like a mirror image of the first. "You also have one on each foot, one on each thigh, one on the right side of your chest, and one on the back of your head."

As Naruto kept looking at the seals, he noticed a faint string of symbols going off the seal and up his arm. He pointed it out, and asked, "Ne, what is this part for?"

Sarutobi just glanced at it. "Oh, that is the linking matrix. A linking matrix is used to connect seals together. In this case, it is used to link the storage seals to the command seal. The command seal is located on the left side of your chest, right above your heart. In a fight, it would not work very well if you had to channel chakra into the seal, and activate them one by one. The command seal allows you to activate them through a vocal trigger, as well as to activate more than one at once. The seals are faint right now, but once you learn to channel chakra, they will show more darkly while you are doing so."

Naruto was practically skipping in excitement, at this point. "Is the sensei we're going to gonna teach me that?"

Sarutobi smiled at the boys excitement "Of course, you would not be able to start training with the armor otherwise, now would you?"

Naruto cheered and sped up.

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><p>Naruto blinked, and blinked again. Slowly he turned to look at his Jiji, "That thing is my sensei?" He asked cautiously. The thing in question, was dressed in a green jumpsuit, had bowl haircut, and was giving a pose in front of what looked like waves crashing to the shore. The last part was the strangest of all considering they were in the middle of a forest.<p>

The old Kage laughed inwardly, it is not the worst he had heard when speaking of Guy.

"Naruto don't be so rude and introduce yourself properly." He scolded the child. He watched as the little blond boy caved at his words, and took a few tentative steps forward.

"Hi, I am Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto said to the man. He didn't need to wait long for a reply.

"Yosh, I am the Mighty Green Beast of Konoha, Might Guy. Now my new pupil, show me your flames of YOUTH!" Guy shouted. He noticed that his new charge was no longer in front of him, looking around he found the blond locks of the child, peeking out from behind the Hokage's robes.

"Jiji, I'm scared!" Naruto yelped, doing his best to hide behind his grandfather from the strange green beast. This might have been more effective, had the Hokage not been chuckling the entire time.

"Do not worry, Naruto-kun," Saurtobi said, when his chuckles died down. "Guy-san merely takes some getting used to. He is still one of the best shinobi in Konoha, when it comes to physical training." Guy puffed out his chest at the praise, until the Hokage turned to him. "And Guy-san, Naruto-kun is not used to such... youthfulness. Perhaps you could hold back a bit, until he has time to adjust? Also, remember that he is still seven. I do not want him hurt because the training is too much." He looked between the two of them, and said, "Is that understood?"

Guy saluted to him. "Hai, Hokage-sama!"

Naruto followed suit. "Hai, Jiji!"

The Sandaime nodded. "Good, then I suggest you take today to get to know each other, and Naruto-kun can explain the circumstances behind him needing a sensei already. Unfortunately, I have to get back to my office. Kami-sama only knows how much paperwork is waiting for me." With a shudder, the Hokage left them alone.

"Yosh, what do you say we get something to eat, and share some more about ourselves?" Guy said with an unnaturally shiny smile.

Naruto, who had been taught a little bit about chakra by his Jiji, thought, _Is he channeling chakra into his teeth?_ What he said was, "Sure, let's go get Ichiraku's ramen!"

Guy shook his head, and said, "I am afraid not, Naruto-kun. Hokage-sama mentioned how much you eat there, and too much ramen is bad for you."

Naruto fell to his knees, looking as though he would cry. It wasn't fair, why did he have to give up ramen. It tasted good, and it was cheap. "Teuchi and Ayame are nice to me, though." Naruto mumbled, staring at the ground.

"You misunderstand Naruto-kun. While we will limit the amount of ramen you will eat, that doesn't mean you won't be able to eat it anymore. There is also nothing preventing you from visiting those you care about. But the constant intake of instant raman whenever you're hungry stops now." Guy told the boy.

Naruto was completely baffled by what seemed to be a one eighty in the man's personality. Apparently, Guy-sensei was capable of being serious when it was needed. "Now, let's test your fires of youth with a few laps around the training ground!" And now he was back to shouting. Well, jiji said the green man would make him strong, so Naruto followed.

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><p>Naruto was lying on the ground panting; he couldn't move his legs anymore. He had a hard time getting air into his lungs. He was exhausted. "Well, you have much more stamina than regular children your age." Guy began, ignoring the attempted glare being leveled at him by the blonde. "You are also a bit faster; I think I have enough to work with. Now, you need to stand up and join me in the proper cool down stretches Naruto-kun, or you will hate me in the morning."<p>

Naruto hated the man right now, but didn't voice it. As he did the stretches he felt his small muscles, which had begun to tighten painfully, loosen. Naruto realized that had he ignored this problem, and continued to lie on the ground as he had wanted, it would have been much worse.

"Yosh! My student, now that we are done with that, I believe it is time I teach you the values of a balanced diet." Guy told Naruto as he began walking towards the market district of Konoha. Naruto groaned he did not want to walk; he wanted to pass out where he stood. Slowly, and painfully, he trudged after his sensei.

As they walked, Naruto asked a question that had been bugging him since the start of their run. "You mentioned getting something to eat earlier, so why did we exercise first?"

Guy boisterously said, "Well, we cannot exercise right after eating, it is not healthy! Thus we shall eat while we rest, and once we have recovered and digested, we shall get back to training."

At the announcement that there was going to be MORE training today, Naruto felt like passing out, but dutifully followed his sensei, nonetheless.

Just before they reached the market, Guy stopped and pulled Naruto into an alley. He looked at the young jinchuriki, with a serious expression on his face. "Naruto-kun, I think I have come up with a plan to help you get accepted by other people easier." Naruto's head whipped up, and his eyes widened. Could Guy-sensei really get people to be nice to him? "However, it will take a lot of work, and a bit of deception, on your part. It will make excellent ninja training, at the same time."

Naruto's expression went from awed to determined. "I'll do whatever it takes, Guy-sensei."

Guy smiled at that (and nearly blinded his student in the process). He said, "What we are going to do, Naruto-kun, is make you into someone else." Seeing Naruto's confusion, he elaborated. "If the villagers think that you are someone else, then they will treat you like any other person. First of all, we are going to have to get you different clothes." He held a hand to forestall the argument he knew was coming. "I know you like orange, but it is too recognizable. So, go ahead and take off the jacket, for now."

Naruto did as he was told, and Guy pulled out a scroll. Guy sealed the jacket into the scroll, while explaining what he was doing. "So, it is kind of like the seals for the cool armor I found?" Naruto asked, while looking at the seal on the back of his right hand.

"Indeed," Guy responded with another smile. "That is actually the second part of the plan. Turn around for a moment please." Naruto turned around, and felt Guy poke him at the base of his skull. A moment later his head was engulfed in smoke...

...and he found himself face down on the ground. Naruto had not been prepared for his head to suddenly get 25 pounds heavier. Guy helped him sit up, and handed Naruto a mirror he had pulled from... somewhere. Before Naruto had an opportunity to get too imaginative on that point, he was shocked out of his thoughts by his reflection. Instead of seeing his own face, he saw that he was wearing some kind of helmet.

It was the helmet from the suit of armor he was looking at earlier, he realized. He remembered that he had it sealed away, so Guy-sensei must have unsealed part of it. "This will also be training, you must get used to the weight of your armor, and the most daunting part of this would be the helm. Your neck, which usually only supports your head, must now hold up your helmet as well. It would be very bad if you could no longer move your head in the middle of battle just because your neck was to tired." Guy told him in his exuberant manner.

Naruto nodded his head to show he understood, well tried too. The helmet was snug and seemed smaller than before, but his nod still threw him off balance. Guy caught him before he fell over again. "As you can see it will also affect your balance. It would seem that the seals resize it to the one wearing it, without changing the weight. This will aid in your youthful training."

Nodding was dangerous, so Naruto gave a verbal response this time. "Okay, Guy-sensei." Naruto was surprised, his voice was distorted, and it sounded completely different from his own. Guy-sensei seemed to be happy about this development, he better not be laughing at him... For now, the helmeted child decided to be content with holding his head up, this was difficult in and of itself.

"Now, for this to work we will need a name for you. After all, a disguise is not very effective if you go around using your real name." Guy-sensei told him, "From now on your name will be…" Naruto leaned closer, expecting something amazing, "Kaji." Nothing could stop Naruto from falling to the ground face first. Helm, his new name was Helm. Well, that was disappointing.

Guy noticed the reaction, "Ah, I see that you find my naming ability most youthful!" He exclaimed. Surely the boy had collapsed in awe at the name. He did a splendid job of ignoring the glare the little blond sent his way. "Now then, we have much shopping to do." He announced hoisting Naruto to his feet once more. "And the first bit is to get you something to eat."

After their shopping trip, they headed back to Naruto's apartment. 'Kaji' felt like his head was about to fall off, but he was ecstatic, as well. People were still giving him odd looks, but instead of glares, the glances were merely curious, instead.

When they got there, they unloaded the groceries, and started on the next lesson. Gai was no gourmet chef, but he did know a few recopies. Since it was the first night, he started simple and just showed Naruto how to cook rice.

Before leaving, Gai told his new student to get plenty of rest, and he would be by to get him in the morning. He also said that he was going to get his "Eternal Rival" to teach the boy a speed eating technique, so that he could still eat in public.

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><p><strong>AN:<strong> There you go! Hope you enjoyed it, and please take time to review.

Maltrazz: Also, keep an eye out for 'Phantom Thief Ranko'! I have finally found a co-author for it, izzy0106, so work on it should soon start in earnest. For more info, check the Story Ideas section on my profile.

If anyone is interested in co-authoring one of the ideas that is posted, would like to hear some of the ideas that I have yet to post, or would like to take one of the ideas for their own, please feel free to ask.


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